NASA’s Starliner astronauts don’t feel ‘let down’ by Boeing’s spacecraft

NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore said astir their continued enactment aboard nan International Space Station during a property conference held yesterday. The 2 are now afloat incorporated into nan ISS crew, arsenic nan Boeing Starliner spacecraft that was meant to return them location past week was alternatively sent backmost to Earth uncrewed.

Early on, nan 2 were asked if they felt “let down” by Boeing.

“Absolutely not,” said Wilmore:

NASA decided not to alert nan trade backmost pinch nan 2 aboard aft uncovering thruster issues and helium leaks successful Starliner. But Wilmore said that pinch much time, “we could person gotten to nan point, I believe, wherever we could person returned connected Starliner. But we conscionable simply ran retired of time.” Instead, nan 2 person go portion of nan ISS crew.

Williams, who Wilmore said will go nan Commander of nan ISS soon, said nan modulation to nan abstraction station’s unit was “not that hard,” arsenic she and Wilmore had been preparing to spell to nan position for years anterior to their formation earlier this year. She said their later return successful a SpaceX Dragon capsule astatine nan conclusion of NASA’s Crew-9 ngo is simply a unsocial opportunity for nan 2 trial pilots, adding, “We’re excited to alert successful 2 different spacecraft; I mean, we’re testers, that’s what we do.”

Neither astronaut expressed dismay astatine being aboard ISS longer. “Space is my happy place,” Williams said, ”...every time you do thing that’s ‘work’ — you tin do it upside down, you tin do it sideways, truthful it adds a small different perspective.”

NASA’s Crew-9 mission, which is due to motorboat later this month, is expected to bring some astronauts backmost to Earth arsenic soon arsenic February adjacent year.